Labrador Retrievers

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Catching up

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

So I know it looks like this blog is abandoned. It really was just hibernating. Many things have happened since the last update including a litter of puppies, some sad losses and some new arrivals so here is a summary of what you have missed!

In July 2011 we lost our 17 year old Ragdoll cat, Merlin (stroke/old age) and September 2011 we lost our beloved Lab Ali (cancer) at age 13 1/2. They just don’t live long enough.

In August of 2011 two Ragdoll kittens – Jake and Elwood, joined our family thanks to Merlin’s breeder. Elwood sadly developed a rare disease (FIP) and passed away in June, 2012. We didn’t know anything about this horrible cat disease until it struck but basically he just stopped eating and wasted away despite every attempt to get nutrition in his body. His breeder graciously gave us a new kitten, Ozzy, who arrived in mid November (and is a terror). I actually have now tried a couple of cat shows with these two gorgeous boys and may show them a bit more as time permits.

Happy Jazz in an agility trial December, 2012 at age 10

Current Labradors are Cori, Zamboni, Jazz, River, Summer and Martini. We also have Pugs Sprout, Sprite and Buster plus Marley (Am Staff) and Archie (generic black dog). Jazz, Summer and Martini all got new titles in various performance events in 2012 including Jazz getting her RAE4 (a very high title in Rally Obedience). We attended the Lab Nationals in October, 2012 in St. Louis and came home with many ribbons.

French Bulldog Puppy

In August of 2012 we acquired a French Bulldog puppy who we have named Ringo. We had both wanted a Frenchie for some time and finally fate presented us with the opportunity to purchase Ringo from a breeder in Ohio. Ringo will be debuted in the show ring in January and got two first places! He is training for a future agility career as well. As you can imagine we definitely keep busy taking care of the pack!

In the barn are our 4 mini donkeys and our horses so there is always plenty of fertilizer available! The donkeys are quite the characters and good for comic relief. They were supposed to be in a live Nativity scene for a local church in December but the blizzard we had the day before sadly made that impossible. Maybe next year…..

Butterscotch and Caramel are our barn kitties who do a great job mousing. Unforunately Butterscotch tore his cruciate ligament in December (rare for cats of course) and needed surgery but is recovering well.

We still have our horses, Nick (Deb’s) and Cookie (Kent’s). We ended up adopting one of our two foster ponies Sugar as she wasn’t going to get adopted and is happy here. She ended up needing surgery this past August for a rare tumor on the root of a tooth. I don’t even know how much money we currently owe our vets…… I think I have an invisible sign here that says to animals “if you are going to have something rare, get adopted here”.

Lakota, May, 2012

 

  The biggest news from the barn is that on May 23rd, 2012 Cookie blessed us with a beautiful filly who we have named Lakota. She is Kent’s pride and joy. She is now weaned and doing well. We are considering showing her in halter in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Horses and Mini Donkeys, Labrador Retrievers, Life in the Country, Personal | No Responses »

Yes, I am a breeder

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

“Do you sleep by the whelping box when a first-time bitch is due to whelp? Have you breathed life into a stillborn puppy? And cried when it died… Have you studied pedigrees, planned the breeding, and watched the litter grow as proudly as the owner of a Kentucky Derby Winner once did? Then you can say with pride… Yes, I am a breeder (article by Cindy Smith).

As someone who is involved with dog and equine rescues, is on multiple dog e-mail lists, reads twitter, facebook, etc. I am aware that there are those who feel breeding any animal is a terrible thing. The “don’t buy while those in shelters die” mentality is that for every puppy born another dies in a shelter. I don’t buy that theory as many of us who are committeed to our breeds also rescue them and make room for “one more” many times at our homes. If I hadn’t gotten so involved with Labradors and Pugs including joining regional and national clubs for each breed, I probably wouldn’t have also gotten involved with rescue and placed who knows how many (100, more?) in new loving homes. I’m sure I never would have co-founded LABMED as I wouldn’t have had the ties with fellow breeders who helped and continue to help LABMED with their contributions.

Yes, there are bad “breeders” but they probably shouldn’t be called breeders but rather “producers” as they only care about making a product and not what happens to the pups the rest of their lives. They are a different type of person from the responsible breeders I know and hang out with. I and my breeder friends will always take back any dog that we placed as a puppy or adult dog. In fact most of us have contracts that insist the dog come back to us but sometimes people either have lost our contact info or sadly don’t want to admit they are having a problem with their dog or can’t keep it due to life changes so dump it in a shelter or on rescue. One friend, when notified a Lab rescue had just gotten in a dog with papers that showed her as a breeder, drove at 10 at night to the foster home that had the dog to reclaim him. So I was really happy to find the above article on line today as it really describes what I go through each time we have a litter of puppies here. This is the essence of a responsible breeder, one who always puts the dogs’ (or other animals) needs before their own need to eat or sleep.

So like Cindy Smith, I am proud to say “Yes, I am a breeder”.

Posted in Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs, Pugs, Raising a Litter of Puppies | 1 Response »
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Thoughts of Nessie

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Today Nessie (formally Champion Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN) would have been 15 years old. I had really hoped to be celebrating this birthday with her here on earth but sadly I had to make the decision to release her spirit back on January 29th. This is a tribute to her that I wrote that day.

CH Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN, WC
4/1/95 to 1/29/10
Nessie left me to go retrieve ducks and bumpers in heaven. Recently she was falling over a lot and having trouble using one of her front legs. I promised not to let her lose her dignity and not sure I totally met that promise but did the best I could. I realized when she laid down on the blanket at the vets’ that she hadn’t been wagging her tail any more and usually she did not like going to the vet but laid down in the sun in the exam room and never picked her head up again while I petted her and the vet helped her leave.

In memory of Nessie.

She was my first CH, my first tracking dog (earned at the tender age of 8 months) and the Queen Bee here. She is the mother of my Ali and Cori, grandmother of Jazz and Zamboni, great grandmother of River. For a few months I had 4 generations of my beloved Labs here. I adored her and would have done anything to have her another week, year, lifetime but I could not let her go on and suffer just for me…….She is now with her co-Queen Bee, my beloved Lily Pug. She is so missed.

Posted in Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs | 6 Responses »
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Four Generations

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Halloween is always bitter sweet for me because I remember my heart dog, Reilly, who I will miss the rest of my life, being born on that day now 21 years ago.

However this year I also have the joy of having 4 generations of my bloodline alive and well in my house and today I was able to get a photo of the four girls together.

Left to right: Ali, Jazz, River and Nessie

Left to right: Ali, Jazz, River and Nessie

Ali is now 11 1/2 and the mother of Jazz who will be 7 tomorrow. Next to Jazz is her young daughter, River, age 16 weeks and next to River is Nessie who is Ali’s mom/Jazz’s grandmother/River’s great grandmother.

Posted in Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs | 9 Responses »
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River Meets Water

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

We had a litter of Labrador Retrievers born on 7/12/09 so they are now 10 weeks old. Today I took one of my Labs to the Retriever Club http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/wp-admin/post-new.php#to work on some issues before our next hunt test and also decided to take Jazz and the female pup we are keeping, River. Basically my goal was to introduce River to a new environment in a positive manner. If she went near or into the water, great, but I wasn’t going to force her.

River was very excited to get out and check out this new place and right away went running after her mom. Pretty soon Jazz was back in the water and River was really watching her trying to figure out what her mom was doing. Soon she was testing the water. Of course she had to test it by drinking it. The bank was very slippery clay so she didn’t actually get in and swim today but still it was a good, positive start. We will try a different pond tomorrow since the nice weather is still holding.

Posted in Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs | 1 Response »
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Puppy Breath

Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Puppies at age 4 weeks

Puppies at age 4 weeks

We have a litter of Labrador puppies here, born on 7/12/09 so thought I would share a couple of photos of them.

Everybody always talks about the sweet smell of “puppy breath”. If you haven’t smelled it I really have no way to describe it to you but any dog breeder knows what I am talking about. So what causes this delightful (to dog lovers anyways) smell that only lasts a short time? The theories I have found say that vets guess that puppy breath is a result of their healthy, mild diet of mother’s milk and then puppy food, and the enzymes that break the food down.

Sleeping pups, age 4 weeks.

Sleeping pups, age 4 weeks.

Since puppies don’t eat “big dog” or table food, they don’t have “big dog” mouth bacteria or the plaque problems older dogs develop so their mouths are clean thus no bad breath.

Can’t you just imagine the puppy breath just looking at these sleeping babies?
More information and photos of our sweet pups can be found on our web site.

Posted in Canine health, Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs | 4 Responses »
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The Curse of the Knocked Bars

Friday, June 12th, 2009

I was at our Lab Specialty agility trial all day today running two dogs as well as working at it. Jazz had some really fast runs (as in fastest in her class) but still can’t keep all of the bars up. People keep saying “wait til she grows up, she’ll calm down” — she is SIX! It is very frustrating to have such a talented dog and still be stuck in Novice Jumpers and no legs in Open Standard. Cori had the opposite problem — she doesn’t like it when it gets hot and in the sun it was hot so she just trotted along or barely ran until the last few jumps. She either didn’t make time (and had the slowest time in her class) or had a knocked bar due to laziness. I think I just need to give up running her outside in summer weather. So I ran two directly opposite types of dogs and no “q’s” today. Just venting…….

ADDENDUM: Saturday Jazz qualified in both rally obedience classes with 4th places in each (95 and 97 out of 100) so partially redeemed herself.

Posted in Agility, Dogs, Labrador Retrievers | 5 Responses »
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Dog Shows This Weekend!

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

There is a busy weekend for dog lovers in Wisconsin starting today and running through Sunday dog shows with going on. Tonight starts with the Great Lakes Pug Club’s annual specialty show with 50 pugs entered. Tomorrow through Sunday will be the Dairyland Cluster of Dog shows and obedience/rally trials. As a member of both the Pug club and the local Badger Kennel Club I will be spending a lot of time at the show site. There are over 1200 to 1600 dogs entered each day! My beautiful Labrador Retriever, Summer, is entered all three days in conformation at these shows. More show information can be found here.

We are hoping some of our state legislators will attend to see the good side of the dog breeding community as well as to talk with breeders about how anti-breeding laws could affect them and why current proposed legislation in our state will not help get rid of puppy mills as intended. All were invited personally to attend so we will see if any take us up on our invite.

Posted in Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs, Pugs | Comments Off

Nessie is 14!!

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009


My beautiful first champion Labrador Retriever and foundation of my breeding program, Champion Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN, WC (Nessie to her friends) turned 14 years old today. She is the queen of the house and still very dignified. She does not have any major health problems — okay an accident in the kitchen on a day I am gone to work all day at times but that is very forgiveable. I think she enjoys her near deafness. She is also trained on hand signals as are most of my dogs but she chooses to ignore them when it is convenient. As she mosies off to sniff something else in the yard she conveniently looks away as I signal her to come! I am so happy to still have her with us.

Posted in Canine health, Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs, Personal | 2 Responses »

Mandatory spay/neuter — BAD idea

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Chicago’s city council is about to vote on a PETA/Humane Society of the United States backed ordinance requiring ALL dogs and cats be spayed or neutered by 6 months of age. This includes purebred dogs who are show or breeding prospects.
This takes away the rights of pet owners and also takes away the decision of what is best for a pet from both the owner and their pet’s veterinarian.
Don’t live in Chicago? You should still worry as once a bad law is passed somewhere it often spreads to adjoining cities/states.
Here are some good blog posts by Chicagoans about why this ordinance would not solve the problems that the proponents claim it would:
From WGN Radio: http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43910&Itemid=254
From the Chicago Tribune Editorial page:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-090310dale_briefs,0,3557678.story

Article on failed mandatory spay/neuter laws in other communities: http://saveourdogs.net/experience.html

To voice your opinion see this poll:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-sterilize-pets-vote,0,7639119.poll

Posted in Canine health, Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Labs, Pugs | 3 Responses »

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